These companies want to block the sun to cool the planet

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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on The Washington Post or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: A growing set of U.S. start-ups — including Make Sunsets and the heavily financed Stardust — are attempting to commercialise solar geoengineering, the practice of dimming sunlight by releasing reflective particles into the stratosphere
• Make Sunsets has already deployed sulfur dioxide balloons without regulatory approval, while Stardust has raised $75 million to develop a new proprietary particle it claims will be safer than sulfur
• The rapid commercialization of this most controversial climate intervention is triggering government scrutiny and global alarm

🔭 The context: Solar geoengineering has long existed on the fringes of climate science due to fears of geopolitical conflict, weather disruption, and moral hazard
• Governments have no dedicated regulatory frameworks, and several U.S. states have already issued bans
• Academic researchers have repeatedly paused outdoor experiments amid public backlash, creating space for private actors to advance faster — and with far less oversight

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Solar geoengineering could theoretically cool the planet quickly and cheaply, potentially reducing extreme heat and climate damages — but it also risks changing rainfall patterns, worsening air pollution, harming ecosystems, and creating irreversible geopolitical tensions
• Unregulated private deployment raises profound justice concerns: actions taken by a single firm or billionaire could affect every region’s climate, undermining global governance and distracting from emissions cuts
• Effective oversight is essential to avoid turning a risky last-resort tool into a commercial race

⏭️ What’s next: The EPA is investigating Make Sunsets, and more U.S. states are considering bans. Stardust plans to publish scientific data and move toward outdoor tests as soon as regulations emerge
• International bodies — including the UN — face renewed calls for global rules, while governments weigh whether to prohibit the practice outright or create controlled research pathways
• Pressure is rising for coordinated governance before commercial actors scale their experiments

💬 One quote: “Governments need to either clearly ban such activities, or they need to come up with guardrails … their heads are still in the sand.” — Janos Pasztor, former UN official

📈 One stat: $75 million — venture funding raised by Stardust to develop its proprietary atmospheric-cooling particle.

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